The former Norwich City boss will be officially unveiled as Town’s new manager at 9am on Saturday and will meet staff and players either after the match or on Sunday, with his first media conference expected early next week.

Lambert’s appointment would, in normal circumstances, have been announced on Friday, but Ipswich were conscious of the fact that it was the funeral of club legend Kevin Beattie.

There were also some final negotiations ongoing with two members of staff that Lambert wants to take with him to Portman Road.

While Lambert watches, Bryan Klug will take caretaker charge for a crunch Championship clash.

Lambert’s first game in charge will be the visit of Alex Neil’s Preston to Portman Road next Saturday.

Klug took over media duties on Friday morning, a day after the exit of Paul Hurst.

“It’s not something I want to be doing because I want the club to be thriving,” said Klug, who had four games in caretaker charge at the end of last season.

“Obviously a situation has arisen and the owner’s made a decision, so here I am.

“It does sadden me really. As you know I’ve been at the club for a long time, and it’s not a club that would make this sort of decision very lightly. It is a shock.

“While I haven’t been at every game, I’ve seen moments where I’ve thought ‘if that had gone that way or if that decision hadn’t been made’ and we could have been talking about a very different scenario.

“I think everything seems to have gone wrong that could possibly go wrong for Paul. He needed a bit of luck and I don’t think he’s had that. You can look at lots of other things but being a manager is a very difficult job, trust me.”

Asked whether or not rumours of behind-the-scenes unrest were true, he added: “No, I wouldn’t say that. It’s normal when you’re losing games of football, the atmosphere is not going to be electric.

“Obviously a decision had to be made and the owner has made his decision now, so we have to now start trying to find a way of getting up the table.”